A dead whale that washed up on the shores of Indonesia had more than 1000 pieces of plastic in its stomach.

The rotting corpse of a 9.5-metre sperm whale was found on Monday in the water of Wakatobi National Park, Southeast Sulawesi.

Local villagers were the first on the scene, The Guardian reports, and were in the process of butchering the carcass before park conservationists arrived.

Upon examination, the whale's body was found to contain almost 6kg of plastic waste - including 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, a nylon sack and a pair of jandals, along with more than 1000 other assorted pieces of plastic debris.

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